Golf-club.



A. FJKNIGHT:

GOLF CLUB.

APPLIOATION FILED a. 27, 1909.

9 176,267. I Patented Nov. 22, 1910:

- Inventor:

oqrthurF'. Kn ight,

ARTHUR F. KNIGHT, OF SCHENECTADY, NEW YORK.

GOLF-CLUB.

Specification of Letters Patent.

Application filed March 27,

Patented Nov. 22, 1910.

1909. Serial No. 486,083.

To all whom it may concern:

30 it known that I, 'ARTI-Iiii l. KNIGHT, a citizen of the UnitedStates, residingat Schenectady, county of Schenectady, State of NewYork, have invented certain new and useful Improvements in Golf- Clubs,of which the following is a specification.

,The object of my invention is to produce a golf cllll) in which theline of flight of the ball may more truly conform to the di rection ofthe blow delivered by the player.

In golf clubs as usually constructed the head of the club is secured toa wooden shaft usually of a highly elastic wood such as selectedseasoned hickory tapering to a- .com-

paratively small section iieartlie head and much stouter at the handleend. Hickory has uniformly been preferred on account of its hardness,toughness and suppleness, the latter quality being very important incontrolling the rebound of the head after the powerful impact with theball and adding to the distance of the drive. I have discovered,however, that with a hickory shaft there is an inherentobjection,namely, the Wood being fibrous in nature offers but small resistance totorsional strain and it therefore results that when the blow isdelivered to the ball, the head of the club yields in a linecircumferential to the axis, that is to say, the blow being delivered ata point several inches eccentric to the axis of the shaft produces astrong torsional strain which twists the hickory and this effect isaccentuated by the nature of the wood, which being in effeet a burdle ofparallel fibers is easily twisted on its axis. Therefore, when the blowis delivered the head takes a resultant line of motion, one componenttending to twist the shaft on the axis and the other to flex itbackward. The latter only is the one desired, since a' rebound in thedirection of the blow would serve only to raise-the trajectory of theballs flight and increase the length of the drive. The torsionalelement, however, is highly objectionable since an angular reboundcauses the ball to deviate from the direction of impact and thereforethe direction of aim and the flight will be at an angle to thatintended, so that unless the player by long training and practiceunconsciously through experience has acquired a standing position tooffset this inherent fault of the club, his play will be uncertain andirregular. I have therefore dispensed with a fibrous shaft and provideda practically torsionless construction with which the player may makehis game far more uniform and with which even a beginner may easilylearn to play fair golf. In driving, the torsion difficulty to which,from my own experience as an expert player, I at tribute mostly a lackof uniform quality in my playing, I have found that as I make the shaftstiffer I improve the fidelity of stroke, but that another difficultythen arises, namely, that lack of suppleness prevents long driving,besides spoiling the balance of the club. After much study andexperimentation, I have finally been able to produce a club in which thenecessary suppleness of shaft for a long drive and a true flight of theball are both assured. I accomplish this by making the shaft of steeltubing preferably hardened and tempered to give as great suppleness asdesired. Such a shaft is at once so light and so rigid that it is nottwisted by the hardest blow, and yet offers any desired amount ofsuppleness to suit the taste of the player and may be arranged to affordthis suppleness at any point in the shaft length. Some players preferthe suppleness to be at or near the head, others prefer to feel theyielding at or near the middle of the shaft. There is a characteristicfeel in the club which dominates these preferences for each skilledplayer and this feel is one which invariably determines his choice. Withmy hollow steel shaft the metal may be so distributed and the supplenessplaced at such a point that a wide range of selection may easily beafforded. With the cylindrical tube the yield is put midway of the shaftlength. \Vith thestepped tube in which the tube diameter decreases at anumber of determinate points, the point of greatest yielding orflexibility may be shifted by vary1ng the position of the final step. Inthe stralght tapered tube which is the form I personally prefer, thesuppleness is near the head, as in the ordinary tapered hickory shaft,but the torsion in all is eliminated by reason of the great rigidit totorsional strain of the steel tubing an the accuracy of 'play is therebygreatly enhanced. I prefer to employ high carbon steel and temperthetube so as to increase the resistance to torsional strain. The tube,may, however, even be case-hardened with improved results, or a qualityof steel be employed of known high torsional resistance, such forexample, .as

nickel-steel. It will be seen therefore that. my invention consists of agolf club whether a driver' sire to have it understood that myinventionis only limited by thescope of my claims here- I inafter setforth and that the essential feature of my invention is thenon-torsional tubular characteristic of the shaft and in carrying out.this object any suitable metal, alloy or material might be employedwhich has a great freedom from torsional yield.

Referring to the drawings, Figure 1 is a part sectional elevation of adriver made according to my invention; Fig. 2 is a modification with asmooth taper tubular shaft; Fig. 3 is another modification with acylindrical tubular shaft; and Fig. 4 is a modification with 'acylindricaltubularshaft in which the section of'metal is reduced at thelower part of the shaft near the head;

The head 1 of the implement is secured to the end of the tapered steeltube 2. Thetube may be swaged to a graded or stepped ta er, as in Fig.1, or a smooth taper as at 3 in ig.

2. One of these two forms is usually preferred, but some players exhibita preference for a plain c lindrical tube as at 4 in Fig. 3. If desirethe point of flexibility in this latter type may be controlled andvaried by a taper bore as indicated at 5 in Fig. 4. The shaft may besecured to the handle and to the head in the usual way or in any.approved way. One way is shown in Figs. 1, 2 and 3, in which theshaft iscemented to the head and riveted as at 6. The handle 7 may be cementedto the steel tube and wrapped with shee skin or calf skin, in the usualway. ig. 4 I have shown another mode of securing the shaft.

The head is here bored to admit the shaft;

the latter is pushed through; and the sole plate 8 soldered, brazed orelectrically welded to it. The sole plate is then pushed back andsecured by lag screws 9, 9, etc. and a rivet 10 applied at the upperart. While I have shown only two types 0 club, namely a driver or brassyand midiron, my invention is, as will be readil understood, equallyapplicable to any clu in which distance driving is desired and may beused with advantage even on clubs in which moderately hard blows aredelivered to the ball when great distances are not required, andparticularly on account of the accuracy of flight of the ball inaccordance with the aim of the player.

The weight of metal in the shaft is not always exactly the same as someplayers desire a lighter club than others, in the shaft invention; Int etaper form or stepped form, approximately the same proportions may befollowed except that the up r portion of the tube may have a largeriameter and that the thickness of wall may vary somewhat according tothe extent of reduction of the tube diameter. 1

Having thus described my invention, what I claim as new and desire tosecure by Let ters Patent, is

1. A golf club provided with a tubular elastic non-fibrous shaft.

-2. A golf club provided with a shaft of steel tubmg.

3. A golf club rovided with a tubular metallic shaft in w ich volumeofmetal decreases toward the head.

4. A golf club provided with a shaft of tapered and tempered steeltubing.

In witness whereof, I have hereunto set my hand this 25th day of March,1909.

ARTHUR F. ,KNIGHT.

Witnesses:

BENJAMIN B. HULL,

MARGARET E. WOOLLEY.

